Web winding machines

ABSTRACT

AN APPARATUS FOR CONNECTING THE REAR END OF A WEB OF A NEARLY EMPLY UNWINDING ROLL TO A FRONT END PORTION OF A WEB CARRYING AN ADHESIVE STRIP AND PERTAINING TO A NEW ROLL TO BE UNWOUND, WHICH INCLUDES TWO PRESSING ROLLERS FOR RECEIVING THEREBETWEEN THE UNWINDING END OF THE WEB FROM ONE ROLLER AND THE FORWARD END OF THE WEB OF A NEW ROLLER WHILE A CUTTER IS PROVIDED BETWEEN THE WEB ROLLERS AND THE PRESSING ROLLERS FOR ALTERNATE COOPERATION WITH THE REAR END PORTION OF THE NEARLY EMPTY WEB ROLL TO CUT SAID REAR END PORTION OFF AFTER IT HAS BEEN PRESSED AND GLUED TO THE FRONT PORTION OF THE NEW WEB, ELECTROMAGNETIC CONTROL MEANS CONTROLLED BY THE REAR END OF THE UNWINDING WEB BEING PROVIDED FOR REDUCING THE SPEED OF THE RESPECTIVE UNWINDING WEB PROR TO THE CUTTING OFF OPERATION OF SAID CUTTER.

' Maw 25, 1971 o. NIEPMANN 3,580,751

WEB WINDING MACHINES Filed July 17, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 I' mt I I W /N VEN TOR 019a Wye/21 May 25, 1971 o. NIEPMANN 3,580,757

WEB WINDING MACHINES Filed July 17. 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.2

INVENTOR fi/fl fyvryl 4' 0 W 1971 o. NIEPMANN 395399757 WEB WINDING MACHINES Filed July 17. 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig.5

. 1 ?"1 Q W 34; N! l" M Jl Ma 340-? 5 ZN! Mi i ZIIM i 1 34b |l| l\ INVENTOR United States Patent 3,580,757 WEB WINDING MACHINES Otto Niepmann, Gevelsberg, Westphalia, Germany, assignor to Maschinenfabrik Fr. Niepmann & Co., Gevelsberg, Westphalia, Germany Filed July 17, 1968, Ser. No. 745,660 Claims priority, application Germany, July 18, 1967, M 74,804 Int. Cl. B65h 19/08 US. Cl. 156-504 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for connecting the rear end of a web of a nearly empty unwinding roll to a front end portion of a web carrying an adhesive strip and pertaining to a new roll to be unwound, which includes two pressing rollers for receiving therebetween the unwinding end of the web from one roller and the forward end of the web of a new roller while a cutter is provided between the web rollers and the pressing rollers for alternate cooperation with the rear end portion of the nearly empty web roll to out said rear end portion off after it has been pressed and glued to the front portion of the new web, electromagnetic control means controlled by the rear end of the unwinding web being provided for reducing the speed of the respective unwinding web pror to the cutting off operation of said cutter.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for connecting the rear end of an unwinding web of material with the front end of a new web of material, said webs of material being wound to form a roll and being unwound therefrom.

With devices of this type it is known to glue the front end of the new web of material to the unwinding web while employing two pressing rollers which are journalled on tiltable levers and press against each other during the gluing operation. Furthermore, heretofore known devices of the-type involved have a knife which cuts off the almost completely unwound web of material behind the glued connection. To this end, the said web of material is by means of one of two grooved rails beaten against the knife edge.

With this heretofore known apparatus, the knife is arranged on a pivotable knife head which shortly prior to the unwinding of the web of material is pivoted by the operator in such a way that the knife engages the unwinding web of material which is cut by the simultaneous engagement of the pertaining knife rail. This apparatus has the drawback that an operator must watch the apparatus in order to actuate the same when the web has almost been completely unwound.

In order, after correspondingly preparing the new web of material to be glued on, automatically to control the gluing operation, it has been suggested for purposes of improving the above mentioned apparatus, pivotally to mount a feeler lever between the rollers of the Web material which is adapted to rest against one or the other roller and which selectively closes one of two switches and excites a magnet which actuates the blocking lever for the levers supporting the pressing rollers. These levers have respectively mounted thereon a sliding rod which is provided with a cam while the cam of one or the other sliding rod engages one of two recesses or cutouts of a follower disc of the tiltable knife head. With this suggestion, an apparatus is created which after an initial preparation, automatically connects the rear end of the unwinding web of material with the front end of the new web of material in conformity with the diameter of the respective roll of material.

3,580,757 Patented May 25, 1971 Although this suggestion represents a considerable improvement of the heretofore known apparatus of the type involved, it still has a number of drawbacks. These drawbacks are seen in that on one hand a movement of the knife head during the cutting operation is necessary, and on the other hand the cutting operation is initiated in conformity with the diameter of the unwinding Web of material. 'Inasmuch as the roller sleeves which receive the web of material have different diameters and in most instances are either not quite round or become not quite round, the cutting operation starts already at a time at which still a relatively large quantity of the unwinding web of material is left on the roller. Particularly, with very thin webs of material the waste is considerable.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the general type involved which will overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for connecting the rear end of an unwinding web of material with the front end of a new web of material, which is of a rather simplified construction and yields an improved operation.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through an apparatus according to the invention.

*FIG. 2 illustrates a section taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1 through a portion of the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a section through a portion of the knife carrier, said section being taken along the line IlI--III of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an approximately vertical section through the contact carrier which carries the feeler contacts, said section being taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an approximately vertical section through the contact carrier, said section being taken along the line V-V of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 represents a vertical section through the knife carrier, the adjusting shaft and through a preferred embodiment of the pressing rollers in interengaging positrons.

The apparatus according to the present invention is characterized primarily in that the knife is arranged on a knife carrier rotatable by from which the knife protrudes unilaterally and is adapted selectively to cooperate with one of the two grooved bars while the pivoting of the supporting levers carrying the pressing rollers and the grooved bars, which is effected in a manner known per so by a magnet, is controlled by feeler contacts which cooperate with the end of the unwinding web of material.

In order to be able in this connection also to take into consideration the inclined unwinding edges of the web of material, it is suggested according to a further development of the invention, to provide each contact carrier with two parallel feeler contacts the feelers of which are located in the vicinity of the edges of the web of material. The feeler contacts which are respectively associated with the unwinding web of material are made effective by means of a microswitch which is operable by a cam disc coupled to the movement of the knife carrier.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cam disc is arranged on a control shaft carrying a control handle and having connected thereto a sprocket wheel which through a chain is connected to a further sprocket wheel connected to the knife carrier. In order to be able to predetermine the position of the knife in a simple manner, according to the present invention, a stationary holding plate above the knife carrier has outside the path of the web of material adjustably located thereon two abutment screws for the knife.

With the heretofore known device it was furthermore necessary to position the beginning of the new web of material with the adhesive strip exactly at such a height that when the pressure rollers meet, an attachment of the two webs of material takes place. In order to avoid this exact positioning and to obtain a better sticking process, according to another feature of the invention, the pressure rollers are in the region of the webs of material equipped with a compressible covering, for example of foam material. Thus, in place of the linear contact, there takes place a contact of the pressure rollers on a surface, which makes any exact positioning unnecessary and which insures a reliable adhesion or connection.

For improving the braking devices which are associated with each roller disk for the web rolls, which have a lining support provided with a brake lining, according to another feature of the invention it is also proposed to mount the lining support on a support shaft so that it can pivot due to the force of a tension spring. Furthermore, the lining support is provided with an actuating lever, which, after the web of material has run off, is released by a coupling part, which is arranged on a pivotable lever which supports a tension roller. Due to this indirect operation of the braking device there is achieved a more gentle engagement of the braking device when the device is being started and when the web rolls are being changed.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, a frame 1 has mounted thereon the roller shafts 2c and 3c of two roller disks 2b and 3b, which receive the webs of material 2 and 3 wound into web rolls 2a and 3a. Each of these webs of material 2 and 3 is guided over a guide roller 4, a tension roller 5 arranged on a pivoted lever 7, and a further guide roller 6 to a cutter support 20. Beneath the cutter support 20 there are arranged two rollers 9 and 10, which are mounted with their roller shafts 9a, 10a on the frame 1. On the roller shafts 9a, 10a there are also mounted support levers 11, 12, which are coupled together by the gear wheels 9b, 10b attached to them.

The support lever 11 is loaded by a pressure spring 19, however, it is held in its position by a stop 11a on the support lever 11, which engages in a recess of a pivoted lever 18. The pivoted lever 18 is movably mounted on a pivot shaft 18a attached to the frame 1 and is connected to pull rod 17a of a solenoid 17. When current flows through the solenoid 17, the pull rod 17a moves to the left according to FIG. 1. The pivoted lever 18 thus releases the stop 11a of the support lever 11, so that the pressure spring 19 tilts the support lever 11 and the support lever 12 toward each other by means of the gear rims 9b and 10b.

On the support levers 11 and 12 there are mounted pressure rollers 13, 14, which limit the pivoting of the support levers 11 and 12 after the tripping of the solenoid 17. Moreover, notched bars and 16 are attached to the support levers 11 and 12. One of these bars selectively cooperates with the cutter 21 attached to the cutter support 20.

The cutter support 20, to which the cutter 21 is attached by means of screws b in such a way that it projects at one side, has at its ends journals 20a, with which it is mounted to rotate in an additional frame 1a, which in turn is attached to the frame 1. On the rear journal 2021 there is fixed a sprocket wheel 22, which is connected by means of a chain 23 to a sprocket wheel 24 arranged on a control shaft 25. This control shaft 25 is provided with a control handle 25a, by means of which it can be turned in such a way that the cutter 21 which projects from the cutter support 20 cooperates either with the left-hand cutter bar 15 or with the right-hand cutter bar 16.

In order to fix each of the two end positions of the cutter 21 exactly, there is provided on the cutter support 20 a pin 200, to which is attached a spring 26, which is connected at its other end to a bolt 27, which is supported by the additional frame 1a. By means of this spring 26 4 the cutter 21 is brought into the end position, in which it is held by means of the stop screws 28a, 2812. These stop screws 28a, 28b are adjustably arranged in a holding plate 28 and are located outside the path of the web of material and of the notched bars 15 and 16.

Above the cutter support 20 on the additional frame 1a there is located a clamping body 29 with clamping grooves or slots 29a, in which the beginning of the new web of material 3 to be connected to the winding-off web 2 of material is clamped by means of the clamping beams 30. The projecting bar of this clamping beam 30 is inserted into the clamping slot 29a by means of a handle 30a for securing the beginning of the web of material. By means of the tension or pulling force which after the gluing operation is exerted by the beginning of the web, the clamping beams 30 are automatically ejected from the clamping slots 29a.

The actuation of the solenoid 17 takes place by means of sensing contacts 34, two of which are provided on a contact support 34a attached to the pivotable levers 7. The construction of a preferred embodiment is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. These figures show that the sensing contacts 34 which are equipped with two contacts 34c and a contact spring 34d, have a feeler 34b which holds the contacts 34c open when the web of material 2 passes normally between the contact support 34a and a counter plate 342. However, as soon as the end of the web roll 2a passes through the sensing feelers or contacts 34b, the contact spring 34d contracts and the feelers 34b enter a recess 34 of the counter plate 34a. In such case the contacts 34c are closed and the solenoid 17 is excited. Due to the arrangement of two sensing contacts 34 arranged with their feelers 34b at the edges of the webs of material 2 and 3, the solenoid 17 is excited also when the edge of the web or material 2 or 3 is torn or when with an inclined run of the running-off edge of the material web 2 or 3 the useless section begins.

In order to make the operation of the device possible even during the change of the web rolls 2a and 3a, on a support plate 33 there are arranged two micro switches 31 and 32, each of which is respectively associated with the sensing contacts 34 of one web of material 2 or 3. These micro switches 31 and 32 are actuated by a cam disk 25b, which is attached to the control shaft 25. This cam disk 25b has a recess which only switches on that micro switch 31 or 32 which is associated with the sensing contacts of the respective web of material 2 or 3 which is winding off. Before substituting a new web roll for the one which has wound off, the micro switches 31 and 32 are adjusted along with the turning of the cutter 21 through By this means, the micro switch whose associated web is winding off, is switched on, whereas the other micro switch is switched off, in order to eliminate an excitation of the solenoid 17 during the process of inserting the new web roll.

When the web of material 2 has wound off and the sensing contacts 34 arranged on the left-hand pivoted lever 7 which were switched on by the micro switch 31, excite the solenoid :17, the pivotable lever 18 is by means of the pull rod 17a pivoted so that the stop 11a of the support lever 11 is released. After the release, the pressure spring :19 causes the support levers 11 and 12 to move to gether. The pressure rollers 13 and 14 press the beginning of the web of material 3 which is provided with an adhesive strip 35 against the web of material 2 which is passing through, while the end of said web is simultaneously cut by means of the cutter 21 directed to the left in cooperation with the notched bar 15. Due to the sticking or gluing process, the web of material 3 is now drawn off from the web roll 3a, the beginning of the web being removed from the clamping slot 29a of the clamping body 29 at the start of the movement by means of the tension which occurs, while the clamping beam 30 is swung due to the tension. Since the cutter 21 does not project on the right-hand side of the cutter support 20, there is no danger of damaging the web of material 3.

Now, by means of the control handle 25a, the cutter support 20 is tilted through 180, and the micro switch 31 is switched olf, while the micro switch 32 is switched on. Subsequently, the remains of the web of material 2 which has wound off is removed and a new web roll 2a is inserted. The beginning of this web roll 2a is clamped in the left-hand clamping slot 29a by means of the left-hand clamping beam 30, after the front edge has been provided with an adhesive strip 3. The support levers 11 and :12 together with the pull rod 17a and the pivoted lever 18 have previously been brought into the open initial position. Thus, the device is ready for a further automatic changing process.

In order to be able after one :web roll has wound off, to brake the roller disk which carries the web roll, there is provided on each roller disk 2b and 3b a braking devce 8 (FIG. 1). This braking device 8 comprises a support 8b which supports a brake lining 8a. The said support 8b is adapted to be pivoted by means of a tension spring 8e attached to a pin 8d. Normally, such pivoting is prevented by an actuating lever 8 which is held by a coupling part 8g, which is attached to the pivoted lever 7 carrying the tension roller 5. However, as soon as the web roll 2a has Wound off, the coupling part 8g with the pivoted lever 7 pivots so that the actuating lever 81 is released and there occurs a braking f the roller disk 2b.

According to the illustration in FIG. 6, the pressure rollers 13 and 14 may be provided with a cover 13a, 14a. of foam material, so that in place of the former linear contact there occurs a surface contact of the two pressure rollers 13 and 14 which makes superfluous any exact positioning of the beginning of the web of material provided with an adhesive strip, and also results in an improvement of the adhering process.'Beyond the web width the pressure rollers 13 and 14 are equipped with a stationary cover, so that a well-defined abutment area is provided.

It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is, by no means limited to the particular arrangements shown in the drawing, but also comprises other modifications, the scope of the invention being determined by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for connecting a rear end of a nearly empty unwinding material track web to a front end of a new material track web being wound in a roll and to be unwound whereby the front end of the new material track web is adhesively joined to the emptying material track web under utilization of pressure-engaging roller means journalled upon pivotable lever means pressed together during adhesive procedure and whereby a knife is movably directed toward a knife-edge complementing groove strip to separate a nearly empty material track web behind location of the adhesive, the improvement therewith which comprises a knife-carrier means for the knife protruding on only one side, said knife-carrier means being rotatably journalled to move about 180.

2. An improvement in apparatus further according to claim 1, in which a cam disc is shaft coupled for controlled actuation With the knife-carrier means, a pair of micro-switch contact means selectively actuated by said cam disc, and a feeler contact activated alternately through said pair of micro-switch contact means at a time overseeing the emptying respectively new material track web.

3. An improvement in apparatus further according to claim 2, in which a control handle is shaft supported and a sprocket wheel is shaft carried for connection to the knife-carrier means, and a chain is connected operatively to said sprocket wheel.

4. An improvement in apparatus further according to claim 1, in which a fixed holding plate is mounted above the knife-carrier means outwardly of the material track through passage, and a pair of stop screws for the knife are variably set relative to said fixed holding plate.

5. An improvement in apparatus further according to claim 1, in which an elastic compressible foam material is provided peripherally on the pressure-engaging roller means.

6. An improvement in apparatus further according to claim 1, in which two roller discs respectively are associated with two rolls of web, tWo brake means respectively are associated with said roller discs, each of said brake means comprising a brake lining equipped carrier movable to cause the brake lining thereof brakingly to engage the respective roller disc pertaining thereto, spring means continuously urging said brake lining into braking engagement with the roller disc pertaining thereto, control lever means operatively connected to said brake lining equipped carriers and normally holding said brake lining away from the respective roller discs against the action of said spring means, and means operatively connected to said control lever means rendering said control lever means ineffective in response to the rear end of a web being nearly unwound from the roller carrying the same.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,766,811 10/1956 Armelin et al. 156-504 3,030,043 4/1962 Pinkham 242-58.4 3,072,354 1/1963 Giles et al. 242-58.4 3,184,364 5/1965 Butler, Jr., et al. l56504 3,306,801 2/1967 Giles 156-504 3,398,911 8/1968 Poupin 24258.-4

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,036,294- 7/ 1966 Great Britain 156-504 1,141,848 12/1962 Germany 242-58.5

BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner R. E. HART, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

